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Kentucky Just Struck Down Its Gay Marriage Ban

A circuit court judge in Kentucky just struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. But Judge Thomas Wingate stayed the effect of his verdict pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on marriage equality later this year.

The highest court in the nation is slated to hear arguments on the issue on April 28, and will likely issue a ruling in June.

The Kentucky case was brought by two pairs of same-sex partners from Lexington—Lindsey Bain and Daniel Rogers, and David Hardee and Marshall Robertson—all of whom had been denied marriage licenses by county clerks.

Related: Former Miss Kentucky Comes Out As Lesbian

In a 33-page ruling issued yesterday, Judge Wingate agreed with the couples' contention that the state's gay marriage ban deprived them of the equal protection and due process clauses of the Constitution.

"This Court believes that marriage, regardless of whether the union is between members of the same sex or opposite sex, is a fundamental right," Wingate ruled. "Kentucky's efforts to deny lawfully married same-sex couples the benefits of that marriage, and to deny other same-sex couples the right to marry at all, does not survive substantive due process scrutiny."

Related: Kentucky Print Shop Welcomes Guns, But Not Gays

In two cases from 2014, a federal judge also declared Kentucky's ban unconstitutional, and ruled the state must recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages, but also stayed his ruling. Kentucky is one of four states—along with Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee—whose bans are being reviewed by the Supreme Court this month.

It was in 2004 when more than three-quarters of Kentuckians voted to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

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